Category: History

Posted on

Big Men seek your attention

Following the terminology popularized by the puncuated equilibrium vs gradualist argument in evolution, one could, I suppose, characterize the two positions as collecting by jerks and collecting by creeps.

Way, way too good to be left languishing in a comment to a post that is almost a year old, I take the liberty of promoting Luigi’s remark to where it might amuse a few more people. What is he talking about? Sir Walter Raleigh, Peter the Great, Captain Bligh and Thomas Jefferson. Big Men, all of them, and stock figures in what Luigi calls the Big Man meta-narrative of plant introductions. Are there others? You tell us.

Posted on

Honeybees no longer pampered on the Pampas

Ranching in South America tends to get a bad press because it is often associated with Amazonian deforestation, but of course there are vast swathes of the continent where it makes good environmental sense, as well as economic. ((For a discussion of the related question of the bad press that pastoralism gets, see this post in CABI’s blog, which coincidentally came out just a few hours after I posted this.)) The Pampas grasslands of Argentina are a case in point. The home of gaucho culture ((Which, incidentally, is not as homogeneous and predictable as one might think.)), the Pampas are undergoing drastic change. The soybean boom is not just having an effect on the livestock industry, but also, perhaps surprisingly, on honeymaking. Much smaller in value, no doubt, than either soybeans or livestock, but these are not times to pass up on diversification.

Posted on

Nibbles: Fungi, Early warming, Food banks, High concept, Russia, Wine, Apples, China, Sustainable ag